Josh's Mission Trip

Due to circumstances that were out of my control, I was unable to blog yesterday, our last day. Yesterday, was our last work day. We managed to complete all the work we had set out to finish. The roof was completed, the house painted, and the toilets installed at the church. It was a great experience to watch the students pour all their energy into the projects in the goal of finishing. Everyone we have had the chance to talk to has expressed gratitude for the work we are doing, but we know our work is much bigger than just the physical things we did. It affects both the people of Cookson and the people of Lebanon. Our works have gone toward bringing the love of God to those we interact with from day to day. As we return to our homes this is what we remember. This is what we are working to do each and every day we are blessed to live.

Today we returned from Cookson. It was sad to have to leave, but we know our time there has come to an end. We know our paths continue to serving God elsewhere. The ride home was full of entertainment. The students were full of energy despite a full week of work.

We thank you for all of your support this week, and for keeping us all in your prayers. We invite you to come listen to us talk about the trip whenever we set a date in the next couple weeks.

Today we were back to work on the house and church. We completed a lot of work at both sites. The work looks great, and the people have expressed the appreciation. Getting to talk and share in relationship with people from the community has been a great blessing from God.

At the church, the group is almost to the point of placing the toilets. It will likely be completed tomorrow early in the day. The roof at the house is almost complete. There is one small section to finish. We have also begun to paint the house. It was a challenge to beging since we needed to replace some of the wood siding. Everyone has been working extremely hard, and the amount being accomplished shows it. The people here at the center have expressed numerous times how great of a group they believe us to be, and it is rewarding for the students to know their work is making a difference in the lives of these people.

We were forced to quit a little early again today due to the heat index. It made for a great opportunity to make another trip to the lake for swimming and relaxation. It seems everyone has had a great time on the trip for the most part. As the youth director I have found it meaningful to have continued conversation with the students about everything going through their heads. It is amazing the grasp some of them have on how to look at life. I find it encouraging for the world to come.

Today was our "free day". When I use that term I mean it was a day we didn't work at the sites. Instead we stayed here at the center in the morning and learned about the ministries of the center. It is amazing all the missions they are doing to help people in this community, including a thrift store that reminded me of King's Closet except it had paid help. We had lunch here with the senior citizens of the community.

After lunch we went to the Cherokee National Headquarters where we received a presentation about the history of the Cherokee and the purpose of the Nation's government. I decided it would be best to describe the presentation with some of the students' own words in a classic top 10 style:

10b. "I learned that everytime Cherokee people think 'sex' and that there was a magical fire that was secretly transfered without wood."
10a. "A man in the audience knew more about the Cherokee than the speaker."
9. "I learned more about Cherokee's from the name than I did from the little Irish woman telling us about her Cherokee heritage."
8. "She [the presenter] continually asked a man in the audience if she could tell 'the rest' [of us] the way Cherokee traditions worked. Apparently, she was not authorized to tell us 'exclusive secrets' without a 'medicine' [man] present."
7. "I didn't learn anything from the Irish lady who claimed to be more Cherokee than someone in the audience just because of his skin tone."
6. "I now understand that the papers we got before the presentation were so we might have learned something"
5. "I had hope that we would learn something important about the Cherokee, instead we were told about Barbara the 'sex' lady. It was retarded."
4. "It felt like I was in a coma, wishing I was dead."
3. "I really was interested, but then she started talking."
2. "My IQ dropped by 15 points in that hour."
1. "I haven't heard more contradictions in a presentation since Rod Blagojevich."

I know some of the quotes are extremely critical, but I do not think they were far off the truth. It did not turn out to be as educational and enlightening as we had hoped. We all had more fun critiquing the presentation than we did actually being in the room listening.

After the presentation we travelled down the road to a heritage center where we learned more about the life of the Cherokee when they were first forced to more to the area. It was at least more entertaining than the headquarters.

Tomorrow we get to go back to work, and everyone is excited to get a lot more work done. Hopefully, supplies are delivered on time so that we might have a lot to do. Our continued thanks for your ongoing prayers and support.

Today we found out a very interesting piece of information. It seems having a group of hardworking persons is great, but sometimes that means you complete work too fast. Today both sites completed work ahead of schedule, and ran out of supplies that were to be delivered. By lunch time we were playing the waiting game trying to figure out exactly what we were going to do next. We still have great confidence we will be able to complete the tasks in front of us this week. It just looks like we will be cramming a lot of work into the last couple days of the week.

After lunch we went to the Illinois River. It was cold and refreshing to stick our feet into. Afterward, we returned to the center since there was no work for us to be doing in the community. It was a relaxing afternoon highlighted by a lot of laughter and fun.

Tomorrow is our non-work day. We will be getting a tour and presentation of the center and its ministry. We are also planning on going to the Cherokee National Headquarters. It should be a great educational opportunity to learn more about the Cherokee nation today.

There have only been only a few minor injuries, but nothing serious. Everything is going well so far.....(some the students wanted to add their touch.)

We thank you for you're continued support and prayers.

Before I begin about the day I should update on the pictures that you aren't viewing. It seems that I will have to find someone who works in the office who can give me the password to the wireless internet signal before I can upload pictures from my compture. However, we are working away from the camp during the office hours and I have been unable to talk to anyone who would know the password. It seems until that time I will be using one of the office comptures and you will not get to see pictures. I will share though that I have a good picture of one person working while four others watch that tells you how much we are doing.

Today was a great day! We got a late start in the morning because the work coordinator had a staff meeting. We didn't get to work until around 9:30. There were three work sites for today: four people stayed here, five people went to a UMC church in nearby town, and seven went to a home.

The four who stayed at the center helped prepare a lunch meal for people from the community. They helped to feed a large number of people. They helped the cooks finished the work ahead of the normal pace. The four also had a chance to spend time with children who come to the center for camp during they day. One of the four said being able to talk with the kids was the most rewarding part of the day.

The group that went to the UMC church worked on a bathroom being added on to the building. They did some stud positioning and hung some drywall. They had an adventure moving old toilets to be replaced. They did not finished the drywall since they did not have the materials to do so. Looks like we know what they will be doing tomorrow. They will also be trying to find the source of a water leak in the ceiling. From what I can gather, they don't know what the source is and it will likely be a trick to figure it out tomorrow.

The third group went to a home and started the prep work to lay a tin roof over an old shingled roof. They got futher along than expected, and it looks like tomorrow they will be able to lay tin on a section of the roof if the pace continues at thie rate. However, a decision was made to change a part of the order, and not all the tin will be at the site until Thursday. The groups has high hopes that they will be able to finish the project by Thursday afternoon.

Overall, it was a highly producetive day. We only worked until 2:00, but accomplished a lot of what we hoped to do today. Tomorrow, we will be starting considerably earlier than today, and it is hopeful we will get a lot more work done. It is a goal to see if we can complete all the tasks they have asked us to do, and force them to find more jobs for us to do in the time we are here.

After work, we loaded up the vans and went down to the lake. Most of us same for a small period of time at least. It was a lot of fun, and it seems people are looking forward to going back tomorrow for a cookout on the lake.

It seems I haven't irritated anyone yet, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. We of course thank you for you're continued thoughts and prayers as the week goes on and we get sick of being around each other.